The 9 Best Lavender Oil Products For Skincare And Acne

Along with tea tree oil, lavender oil is perhaps the most popular essential oil for skincare, and for good reason.

It’s most popular for fragrances in perfumes, and pouring into your bathtub and reducing stress while you bathe, but for acne, lavender oil has two key powers.

Firstly, lavender oil strongly suppresses pro-inflammatory immune system agents called neutrophils in the skin. These chemicals fire bursts of free radicals, theoretically to break down old and fragile tissue, but frequently causing acne and a grey skin tone as well.

Secondly, lavender oil has a strange ability to increase collagen, a structural protein which helps with strong skin, youthful skin, and a bright and vibrant skin tone. Collagen also helps with healing old acne faster, and lavender oil is proven to increase type 1 collagen in human skin.

There’s only one problem: the market is riddled with poor quality brands. Compared to argan oil or shea butter, there’s a particularly high amount of fake and synthetic products.

That’s why today, we will discuss the 9 greatest lavender oil products money can buy. Firstly though, a safety note: always dilute your lavender oil before applying to the skin. Essential oils are very strong, and this rule applies to all of them. You should also avoid consuming your lavender oil – these products are all for external use only.

For a shortcut, US Organic is the ultimate product here.

Let’s get started:

One – Plant Therapy

Our first lavender oil is manufactured by Plant Therapy, one of the best essential oil companies full-stop. Plant Therapy lavender oil is steam distilled for optimal nutrition, pure, and free from preservatives or extra chemical fragrances.

This is 100% real lavender oil, rather than a synthetic imitation. Most importantly, Plant Therapy lavender oil is the correct subspecies – lavandula angustifolia. There’s 39 known species of lavender in the world, and lavendula angustifolia is much richer in linalool and linalyl acetate, the active medicinal components which are responsible for the acne-clearing benefits.

Meanwhile, another common species is lavandula latifolia, called spike lavender because of the spiky bushes. Spike lavender has similar levels of linalool, but far less linalyl acetate. There’s also lavandula stoecha, or Spanish lavender, extremely low in linalool with no linalyl acetate at all. For acne, you should always buy lavendula angustifolia, and Plant Therapy fits the bill.

Elsewhere, Plant Therapy lavender oil is in a protective dark glass bottle. The laboratory report detected high levels of linalool and linyl acetate, and also has comments from the world renowned essential oil expert Dr Robert Tisserand: “excellent powdery-floral odor quality“. Reviewers agree, calling the smell “great“, “wonderful“, and natural and floral. Last but not least, this oil is certified organic by the USDA.

This lavender oil is indeed USDA certified organic, and it succeeds in every other way too. The subspecies is lavandula angustifolia, while toxins, preservatives and additives are far away.

US Organic formerly lacked a dropper, but there’s now a new and improved dropper built into the bottle. Speaking of the bottle, it’s made from glass and dark amber, to keep the lavender oil fresh.

The smell is sweet, herbal and floral, according to reviewers. The oil is packaged in the USA, but the lavender petals and oil themselves originate from an old fashioned Bulgarian village called Bial Briag. This is situated in a valley on the foothills of Balkan mountains, where the river Kamchia runs through, and is one of the most prestigious lavender oil sites on earth. As a rule, Bulgaria is one of the highest quality lavender oil producers.

US Organic is one of the best oil companies for acne, with their argan oil and jojoba oils being outstanding. Their lavender oil is no exception.

Sky Organics is a top quality seller of shea butter and their lavender oil is among the best too. It’s steam distilled for optimal nutrition, while the bottle is glass and an extremely dark amber.The smell is floral and earthy as it should be, smelling “lovely” and “beautiful“, with no strange chemical scent.

Sky Organics lavender oil is bottled in the USA, but sourced from artisanal farmers in the south of France. As a rule, most lavandula angustifolia comes from Bulgaria or France, the masters of lavender oil production, but can also come from Spain.

Another special type you might see is high altitude lavender oil. This is derived from lavender petals grown high in the mountains or hills. The benefit is higher nutrition, since colder temperatures and thinner air force the flower to pump out more linalool for its own protection.

High altitude lavender oil is a nice bonus, but it’s far from necessary, as the flower’s subspecies is most important for acne. Also remember that a brand marketed as high altitude still has the pitfalls of any other lavender oil, being potentially fake or synthetic.

Speaking of which, Sky Organics has only one ingredient: lavandula angustifolia oil. It’s certified organic by the QCS, and free from pesticides and chemical additives.

Another lavender oil with the ultimate lavender subspecies and another brand which is USDA organic. Mary Tylor Naturals is free from any preservatives, synthetic fragrances, or pesticides used on the petals. There’s no hexane, a neurotoxic chemical solvent used to extract oils.

Mary Tylor Naturals is also in a glass bottle, with a dark amber colour. Why is this vital? All skincare oils need protection against UV radiation, but lavender oil might be the most important of all. Its signature compound, linalool, is highly vulnerable to damage when exposed to sunlight.

When oxidised, linalool turns from anti-inflammatory to strongly pro-inflammatory. It’s a similar case with limonene in citrus oils. That’s why every lavender oil featured here is in a sturdy glass bottle, and Mary Tylor Naturals is no exception.

This lavender oil also succeeds with its natural and pleasant smell, according to the hundreds of reviewers, while the lavender petals originate from Bulgaria. Mary Tylor Naturals comes with a built in, high quality glass dropper for simple usage. Mixing lavender oil with a carrier oil such as tamanu oil is the ultimate strategy.

Mary Tylor Naturals is pretty much unbeatable for an acne-clearing lavender oil.

A combined recipe which might take your skin’s youthfulness, glow and clearness through the roof.

Out Of Africa is a pure, unrefined shea butter product. To provide a flavour, it has added lavender oil, but the benefits go far beyond smelling nice.

This product will give you a double whammy of acne-clearing strength, as the two products’ powers are similar. Lavender oil and shea butter both increase collagen levels when applied to the skin. They both have promising anti-inflammatory properties and of course, shea butter is one of greatest natural moisturisers, increasing skin hydration in just three hours.

Out Of Africa is one of the best combined skincare products an acne patient could buy. The lavender within this recipe is lavandula angustifolia and shea butter is also pure and in a nutritious, unrefined state. There are no ingredients other than those two, no chemicals to improve the texture artificially, and no additional chemical fragrances.

Another great advantage is that Out Of Africa is a prepacked recipe. Lavender oil is a very strong topical treatment, so you always need to dilute it in a carrier oil anyway, but here the work is done for you.

Out Of Africa is an excellent lavender oil choice for more experimental acne patients.

This lavender oil is sourced from only “the finest lavender plants“, growing in “the rich fields of Bulgaria“. Aetos is double organic certified: by Ecocert and the USDA. No chemicals are used when growing the flowers, creating the oil, or packaging the product. Bulgarian villages like to keep their lavender supplies fresh and natural anyway.

Aetos follows the optimal steam distillation method. The bottle is glass; it’s blue rather than the ultimate dark amber, but blue glass still deflects a huge amount of light. Keeping your lavender oil in a cool and dark cupboard will extend the shelf life massively too. As a rule, a lavender oil that smells as strong and flowery as the day you bought it is still intact and free from damage.

Aetos is leagues ahead of most lavender oils on the market. It is neither diluted, adulterated, nor synthesized and the consensus on the smell is earthy and natural. Aetos’ directions for skincare are to dilute a few drops in a carrier oil, the correct strategy. The subspecies is correct and the quality is excellent.

There’s little more to say: Aetos is a top class lavender oil for acne and skincare.

Perhaps the purest and most natural lavender oil of all time, for it has been tested for every contaminant lavender has ever known.

Like its jojoba oil, Zongle’s lavender oil passed the test for four heavy metals: mercury, lead, cadmium, and the pore-clogging arsenic. This lavender oil contains no yeasts or moulds, nor additives. Zongle is free from all pesticides and contains only lavender oil.

If purity is your goal then there’s no better lavender oil than Zongle, and it has the USDA organic certification to prove it. Zongle lavender oil comes in a blue, glass bottle, and contains the lavandula angustifolia subspecies.

Their directions are fairly standard: use a few drops and dilute with a carrier oil. What are the best choices? There’s many great options, but to multiply the collagen boosting benefits even further, tamanu oil and shea butter are optimal. To combine lavender oil with a different power, you could choose grapeseed oil or argan oil with their high vitamin E contents.

If you desire one of the purest lavender oils on the planet, Zongle is the brand for you.

The name is accurate: this lavender oil is indeed lush, according to the hundreds of reviewers who called the smell “great”, “wonderful”, or even “calming”. Lily and Lush is steam distilled, as any great lavender oil should be, with no chemical additives, preservatives or fillers.

This lavender oil contains no real flaws, as it comes with an inbuilt, sturdy glass dropper. The bottle is perfect, with thick glass and a dark brown colour; the only minuscule flaw of Zongle is its blue colour.

Lily and Lush contains the lavandula angustifolia subspecies, and speaking of this, there’s one last “subspecies” to avoid: lavandula x intermedia. Commonly known as lavandin, this ingredient is a man-made hybrid species combing l. angustifolia and spike lavender.

The all-important linalool and linalyl acetate content lies between the two, therefore making it lower than lavandula angustifolia. Furthermore, there’s massive variation inside the subspecies; some plants might secretly contain much less linalool than others, while still simply reading “lavandin” on the label. Again, l. angustifolia is optimal, and Lily and Lush contains it.

If lavender oil is secretly the solution to your acne, Lily and Lush is a great way to get it.

We finally arrive at the great Fat Buddha, our final lavender oil. If Mary Tylor Naturals is the queen of lavender oil, then Fat Buddha is the king, for it meets all the requirements for acne and then some.

Fat Buddha is USDA certified organic. It is steam distilled, and in a dark glass bottle. The dropper is glass and easy to use. Fat Buddha lavender oil is the correct subspecies, and comes with a free eBook guide.

This oil is even made in small batches, to guarantee that every bottle is up to standard. Fat Buddha lavender oil comes from both Bulgaria and France: they selectively source the very highest quality batches. Fat Buddha is actually the highest rated lavender oil on amazon as of November 2017, and it passes the fragrance test easily.

An important note about lavender oil is that even when it’s 100% natural, the fragrance won’t be identical every single time. The same farm in the same traditional village will produce lavender oil with a slightly different nutritional composition each year, thanks to variations in weather, soil, and temperature which force the plant to react.

Regardless, Fat Buddha has the classic lavendery smell. Chemicals are nowhere to be found, and no preservatives, parabens, nor additives are used.

Fat Buddha is among the top 5 lavender oils available today: there is no product better for acne and skincare.

If you lived in a traditional Bulgarian village, you could probably use the world’s highest quality lavender oil every day to your heart’s content, but for everyone else, these are the nine best products available.

Again, the lavender oil market is particularly fraught with danger compared to other oils. Synthetic fragrances passed off as oils are everywhere. Even some apparently big brands have been caught out. The products listed here are proven to be genuine, and have every other feature for acne and skincare as well, whether it’s optimal nutrition or a glass bottle.

As well as buying your lavender oil and enjoying the results, remember the principles of this article while buying other oils too.

Comments

The lavender oil from Essential Oil labs is a product of India, not Bulgaria. Although their website and documentation (which is probably fraudulent) say Bulgaria, the bottle has very fine print on the back that says “Product of India”.

I couldn’t find a way to directly upload the images. But yes I purchased a bottle and didn’t see any mention of India until I got it and looked at the back label (which is not shown on their website or on the amazon page). And I double checked all their documentation before and after buying. They mention bulgaria everywhere but the actual bottle.

I emailed them about it but they haven’t replied yet. The smell isn’t particularly synthetic, but is different from the bulgarian lavender oil from artnaturals (which is part of a set that came with a diffuser, and has proper documentation). Also the link essential oil labs provides on their website for the analysis of their lavender oil doesn’t work. It could be that the lavender is genuine, but I doubt it’s bulgarian. That might also explain why they are able to sell it at a relatively lower price.